Deke Bellavia

Deke: New Orleans Metro Area takes over Class 4A

by Deke Bellavia,posted Nov 23 2012 1:48PM

In high school football, if you’re playing on Thanksgiving week you are damn good! Just two weeks ago when the final power points were tallied and the brackets were released we started out with 32 teams in each of the five classifications in Louisiana. And now we are down to the best eight teams in each of those very same five classes. As far as area teams are concerned, the New Orleans metro area is well represented in the state quarter-finals this weekend.

Class 4A is loaded with teams from the New Orleans metro area, and some of the best match-ups in the state take place this weekend in the Big Easy. Holy Cross, McDonough #35, Edna Karr and St. Augustine are all in the Class 4A quarter-finals and the likelihood of three of the four advancing to the final four next week is pretty good!

The Holy Cross Tigers are playing as good of football as they have under Coach Barry Wilson. The Tigers have lost two games this season, and that was to Jesuit and Rummel. Holy Cross now takes on LaGrange, with the winner moving on to the state semi-finals to face either St. Augustine or Karr.

The Tigers looked as good as they have all season long last week with a big 42-7 blowout road win over the DeRidder Dragons. “We are playing well right now. Our players and coaches have worked real hard to get to this point and we want to keep playing as well as we can,” said Tigers Coach Barry Wilson.

Legendary Coach Wayne Reese and his Roneagles of McDonough #35 are as hot as any team in these parts. You could say that the Roneagles have been in playoff form since the middle of the season.

At the midway point of the season the Roneagles did not look like they were even going to make the playoffs. But during the last six weeks of the season McDonough #35 moved up 22 spots in the power points to earn the #21 seed, and now with one win the Roneagles will advance to the semi-finals.

If there is a bigger game in the state than this one, please tell me. St. Augustine and Edna Karr square off in a game that will feature some of the best prep football players in the country. The game is obviously headlined by one of the nation’s premiere recruits in St. Aug running back Leonard Fournette.

Fournette opened the eyes of the country last week as he rushed for a whopping 341 yards in the Purple Knights’ blowout win over a very good St. Thomas More Team in Lafayette. But Fournette is facing perhaps the best defense in the state this weekend.

Coach Jabbar Juluke and the Edna Karr Cougars don’t like to give up many yards, and they really don’t like giving up many points. The Cougars allowed only 6.5 points per game this season and Karr has had double digits scored on them three times in 12 games.

This game features some of the most talented players in the country and there should be an overflow crowd Friday night on the West Bank at Behrman Stadium. Below are some other big match-ups that our great group of reporters will be covering this weekend.